The Top Eight Unanswered Questions in Television

by TheJeffKellySeptember 13, 2010 at 10:00AM
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Views: 6,673

We don’t ask a lot from our television shows. The main thing we’re looking for is a compelling storyline. Preferably one in which the questions posed are, you know, answered. Sometimes, though, either the writers just forget about some of those questions, run out of time to actually answer them, or just like screwing with their audience.

(Obviously, there are tons of spoilers here if you haven’t seen these shows, but you should go ahead and read anyway.)

8. So wait, was Rawls gay? (The Wire)

If you’re a fan of The Wire – and chances are if you’ve seen the show, you’re a fan – you remember Rawls. He was the foul-mouthed jerk who really hated Jimmy McNulty. Well, everyone on that show was foul-mouthed and most of them hated McNulty, but to be more specific, Rawls was McNulty’s Major from the Homicide Division. And apparently, he was also gay. Fans will remember the one random scene in season three when a character ventures into a gay bar, and just before the scene ends, we see our favorite obnoxious Major sitting at the bar having a good ol' time.

And then…it’s never mentioned again. It was a complete one-time thing, a random scene that you could almost argue was inserted for shock value. Only the writers of The Wire did absolutely everything for a purpose. We’re just not sure what the purpose was this time. Maybe all of that hate and aggression toward McNulty was just the grown-up equivalent of a schoolyard crush. After all, McNulty was just oh so pretty.

7. So did Logan Echols get whacked, or what? (Veronica Mars)

Source: UPN

There are other major questions unanswered thanks to the premature cancellation of the cult hit Veronica Mars, like what happened to Keith Mars in the sheriff’s election or how did Wallace get a basketball scholarship when he was seriously like five feet tall. But the one we’re going with is this: what the hell happened to Logan Echols after he beat up a mobster’s son?

In the series finale, Logan beats wholesale ass on a douchey frat boy who happens to be the son of a violent Russian mobster. The mobster’s son, after being pummeled, promises Logan that he is going to die. Since the series ended, we never found out if our favorite self-destructive, stinking rich surfer wound up chopped into little pieces and dumped in the Pacific. But at least if he did die, he died doing what he loved: making a jackass out of himself in front of Veronica.

6. So did any of Angel Investigations actually, you know, live? (Angel)

Source: Mutant Enemy

Another show that suffered from being canceled way too early, Angel followed one of the primary characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a spinoff that was arguably better than the original. Luckily, the writer’s knew that the show had been canceled and threw us a bone by giving us all sorts of closure. Oh wait, that’s pretty much the opposite of what they did. Our bad.

The ending, while about 10 different kinds of awesome, was also one of the biggest cliffhanger endings in recent television history. The surviving members of Team Angel, battered and bruised, are in an alley with an entire army of devils, demons, dragons, and lord knows what else marching straight at them. Angel rallies his shorthanded troops, says “Let’s go to work” and…cut to black. So what the hell happened? Did anyone live? Fortunately for devoted fans, Joss Whedon has penned an Angel comic that carries on the story. But seriously, doesn’t that feel more like fan fiction than an actual resolution?

5. So wait, who was Shepherd Book, again? (Firefly)

Source: Mutant Enemy

Hey, look, it’s another Joss Whedon show that was canceled before its time. This time we’re talking about the space western Firefly, which lasted for one very short season and provided very few answers to the numerous questions it posed. One of those questions, of course, was about just who the mysterious Shepherd Book was before he became a man of faith. There are hints abound that he used to work for the Alliance, with the popular theory being that he was an Operative, like the one the crew faced in the movie.

Oh yeah, that’s right, we almost forgot. After the show was canned with all of those unanswered questions lingering, at least we got a movie that finally revealed what or who Book really was. Except we totally didn’t, because Whedon decided that he wanted to punish the fans that had made the movie possible by killing off his most mysterious character before revealing just what his real background was. Thanks for the giant kick to the sack, Whedon.